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| С Рождество́м, to all y'all. |
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the Islamic world:
An Egyptian police officer was killed on Saturday while attempting to defuse an explosive device found at a church in an eastern Cairo suburb, state television reported, less than two days prior to Coptic Christmas celebrated by Egypt’s Christians.
Two policemen and an onlooker were also injured when the device exploded, security sources said.
It's just an economy:
The unemployment rate – which is mostly a fraudulent stat since it doesn’t include people who have given up looking for work – stayed at 5.6%.
But the real issue is with wages.
Wage growth for permanent workers was reported as 1.49%, far below the rate of inflation.
What this means is that Canadian workers are actually getting poorer in real terms, as increases in wages aren’t keeping up with the rising cost of living.
And behind the top-line numbers, Canada lost 18,900 full-time jobs.
“Canada will have an important debate about how to tackle the pollution that causes climate change in 2019.
The @JustinTrudeau plan is based on the best available economics and science. The @AndrewScheer plan does not (yet) exist.”
Yes, about that:
“A coalition of grassroots pro resource groups is organizing a convoy from Western Canada to Ottawa and hosting a rally on Parliament Hill. This project is a massive undertaking that no one group can fund on their own. We would like to be able to fully fund any participants who want to join but can’t, due to finances. Taking this amount of time off for anyone in the oil & gas sector is a huge sacrifice but there has never been a more important time to be heard.
We are positive, proactive, and we are all Canadian. It’s time Ottawa hears us. We need pipelines to tidewater and market access for our product. We need the government to cancel Bill C48 (tanker ban) and make the necessary changes to Bill C69. We need to be able to feed our families. Canadians need jobs and prosperity. ..."
Does Butts' love for carbon taxes extend to oil workers?
Also:
The organizer of a grassroots pro-pipeline group planning a protest convoy to Ottawa says he is unsettled that a similar movement has embraced the yellow vest as its symbol.
Canada Action founder Cody Battershill made it clear his group was troubled by the Convoy to Ottawa, which has associated itself with the yellow vest movement.
“If they are yellow vest, we will not be doing anything with them and I’ve made that clear to them,” he said, adding if they decided to shed the moniker, he would be willing to travel together.
“For us, yellow vest is from France — we are Canadian, we are focused on Canadian families. … In France, they were rioting and that’s not Canadian either.”
And that is the reason why Justin et al aren't listening to you. Unless you are in his face and preventing him from getting hair conditioner, he will ignore you. Why do you think he puts all of his political efforts (such as they are) in Quebec? What do you think would happen if convoys showed up in front of the House of Commons and if Quebec was oil-starved?
Of course, none of this would ever be necessary if Canadians demanded that their governments be accountable and demand term limits but that's not the Canadian way, either.
This bears repeating because we haven't learned a g-d- thing about communism.
It is impossible, impractical, illogical and it's bloody evil:
A group of legislators from Canada on a visit to China pressed authorities on Monday to release two men who were detained last month but had little success, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported.
(Sidebar: oh, I'm sure they did.)
**
A newly formed coalition of rights groups held a demonstration in front the Chinese consulate in Toronto on Jan. 4 to demand the release of Canadian citizens detained in China as well as protest the Chinese regime’s rights violations inside and outside China.
The Canadian Coalition Against Communism (CCAC) organized the demonstration to call on the regime to release Canadians that have been detained since the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Dec. 1. They also shed light on human rights abuses perpetrated on minority groups in China. About 100 people attended.
“What we, as Canadians, are experiencing right now with two arrested Canadians, the Chinese government been doing to their people for years and years,” said CCAC chair Majed El Shafie in a speech, referring to Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Formed to stand against human rights abuses under communist regimes, the coalition includes One Free World International (OFWI), East Turkestan Association, Association of Anti-Religious Persecution, North Korea Human Rights Association, Students for a Free Tibet, and the Association for a Democratic China.
El Shafie, also the founder of OFWI, cited human rights abuses by the Chinese regime against Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) adherents, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians, and other minority groups in China, saying they must come to an end.
**
A former senior North Korean diplomat who defected to the South in 2016 on Saturday urged a former colleague who has gone into hiding before ending his term in Italy to come to Seoul, as opposed to the US where he is reportedly seeking asylum.
Thae Yong-ho, who was the deputy ambassador in London and the most recent senior diplomat to defect, wrote an open letter to Jo Song-gil, 44, until recently North Korea’s acting ambassador to Italy, who fled the Rome embassy with his wife in early November without notice.
Jo became acting ambassador in October 2017, and his term was set to expire in late November 2018. His children were reported to have been living with him in Rome.
“It’s an obligation, not a choice, to defect to South Korea for North Korean diplomats like us as well as members of the Korean people,” Thae said in a letter released on his website, which he claimed Jo often visited. The last time they saw each other was six years ago in Pyongyang, according to Thae.
“If you come to South Korea, the day when our suffering colleagues and North Korean citizens are liberated from the fetters would be moved forward,” Thae said.
Thae stated several reasons for moving to Seoul, including the economic and political situation as well as the educational environment for his children.
Typically, North Korean diplomats stationed abroad have to leave several family members behind in Pyongyang to prevent their defection. However, given that Jo’s father and father-in-law were senior diplomats, he has reportedly been staying in Rome with his wife and children.
“I thought I learnt a lot about South Korea through the internet as I had been working in foreign countries for a long time. But South Korea has achieved much stronger economic development and democratization than I had thought,” he said. “Sure, the South is not exactly a paradise. But it is a place where you and I can achieve the dream we all have.”
While Jo’s current whereabouts are not confirmed, he has sought asylum in the United States and is under the protection of Italian intelligence, according to Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper.
(Sidebar: no one ever says Italy.)
**
Building on the 10,000-member cyber warfare military unit the country launched in 2017 to fight “wrong views,” Vietnam is now setting out with its latest regulations to sanitize what those in the country can read online. As well as mandating that Internet companies such as Google and Facebook record and keep data on their users (in case the Vietnamese government wants to sneak a look or 10, at any point in the future), the law demands that these same companies take down anything on their sites that Vietnamese authorities find “toxic.”
(Sidebar: kind of like Canada.)
And for extra emphasis:
I realized that Stalin’s “victories” were due to his killing the innocent—an organization a tenth the size would have swept Stalin away in two days.
I felt a great disturbance in the Narrative, as if millions of annoying voices suddenly cried out in self-righteous indignation and were suddenly silenced by reason:
My children like Jordan Peterson and I’m not a fan. I can’t wait to tell them the “free speech” guy is suing folks because he doesn’t like THEIR free speech. Oh, the ironies aren’t lost on me, and I hope not on my children. Tell Jordan he must be fake, if he doesn’t allow others the same he constantly spews about —free speech out wins political correctness! I love It — can’t wait to tell the teenagers! Thanks. You made my day. My teenagers are squirming on this one, and I can’t stop laughing.
Suing “folks,” says the letter writer. These “folks” are, among others, the same Rambukkana and Pimlott who, along with their Faculty Association, are now suing their erstwhile TA, Shepherd, according to an announcement made recently. Apparently, what they said in the meeting was not defamatory (despite the university’s apology for the fact of the meeting’s very existence) but if by some chance it was, then it was Shepherd’s fault for sharing the proceedings — despite the fact that such an action was her only available defense.
I responded to the letter, although I usually don’t. Maybe I was annoyed beyond intelligent reticence by the mean-spirited gloating of a mother delighted to have the chance to defeat her own children. In any case:
Dear Ms. [redacted]
If you look into the Lindsay Shepherd situation with more care and are not absolutely appalled then you did not understand what you have seen. Describing a colleague as Hitler (among many other careless pejoratives) at a university, during an inquisition (1) based on a lie and (2) aimed successfully at destroying a 24-year old graduate student’s career is slander, not free speech.
Why the glee on your part? That young woman had a very miserable two years as a university she trusted and respected alienated and tormented her. I see very little amusing about the whole sad situation. And if I win the suit, taken out in support of her, I plan to donate the money to graduate student scholarships.
Finally, if you care more about your teenagers than about being right you could share this letter with them. You could also try to find out what they’re learning from me that seems to be attracting their attention. After all, it’s not always that easy to get through to teenagers.
Tell them I said Hi.
(Paws up)
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